The Girl in the Fedora
by thewanderingstory
Summary: When the Doctor runs into a strange super-powered girl on a Dalek spaceship, he doesn't know what to do. At least, until she gets them both locked up in SHIELD's custody in a parallel universe. Then the answer is: NEVER LET HER FLY THE TARDIS AGAIN. Takes place 4 months after the movie. Sequel to Nightwalker.
1. An Unexpected Encounter

**Hello, lovely people of Fanfiction! Some of you may be aware of my other story, a Teen Titans fanfic, which is the prequel to this one. It's called Nightwalker, and it tells her origin story. As of February 2014, it is not done, but I can reveal that it will end with Nightwalker deciding that she needs some space and leaving to explore various universes and metaverses (again, see the original story, chapter 9). I am going to finish that story, but since I currently have a mild state of writer's block and I love Doctor Who, I thought I'd start another story. I'm just going to say up front that this story, as of yet, has no actual plot, and is simply the result of me throwing two of my favorite characters together for the fun of it.**

**Sadly, I do not own the 10****th**** Doctor, Doctor Who, or anything else pertaining to the show. (Which is probably a good thing—can you imagine what I could do with a TARDIS? Aaah, the possibilities…ahem, getting off topic here. Like I said, probably a good thing I don't own one.) Nightwalker is a character I created, though if someone wants to borrow her, just PM me to ask for permission. As long as it is not a slashfic, I will probably allow it. Enjoy the workings of my twisted and bored mind.**

**UPDATE: That story is finished, so I'm going to have some more time to focus on this one. Please check out the first story!**

Nightwalker ran down the hallway of the strange spaceship, mentally freaking out—in both a good way and a bad way.

The good way? Well, she was excited. After her long stay with the Titans, she had been itching to stretch her legs and go on a nice, complicated adventure. Preferably one in another metaverse, with plenty of new things to find, hack, and study. She had gotten much better at hacking in the past several weeks. So the good news? Alien spaceship.

The bad news?

Evil aliens in rolling cans. Who seemed fairly intent on killing her. And had she mentioned the whole trapped-on-their-ship thing?

Normally, she would just teleport into the Void, but she was pretty sure that she had seen another person on the ship, and refused to leave him here if he existed. And if she was being honest with herself, she didn't want to duck and run at the first sign of trouble. That seemed like a cowardly option.

She skidded around a corner and crashed into someone else. Nightwalker fell onto the floor, whacking her head. After a long string of creative curse words in several languages, she looked up to find that a man had been the one who crashed into her—the same man he had seen earlier.

He was tall and skinny, dressed in a brown pinstripe suit and a pair of Converse, of all things. He also had a light brown duster, which she could appreciate, and a shocked look, which she could not.

"Owww," she said, rubbing her head through her fedora. "Don't you ever watch where you're going? Is it that strange to run into random girls on spaceships?"

"On Dalek ships, yes," he said, staring at her. "Where did you…"

Suddenly, an alarm started to blare. The odd, tinny voices of the aliens echoed down the hallway. "_Intruder alert! Intruder alert! The Doctor is aboard!_"

Nightwalker looked at the strange man with a British accent. "I'm not the Doctor. Are you?"

He grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. "Yes, actually. Now, if you don't mind, we're kind of in life-threatening danger right now, so I suggest we run. I've got a ship. It's around here somewhere…"

"Duck!" Nightwalker shouted, pushing him out of the way. At that moment, a bright beam of crackling energy hit directly where the man had been standing. Those tin-can things were rolling down the hallway, shouting "_Exterminate! Exterminate!_"

"And that would be our cue. _Run!_" he told her, grabbing her arm.

The two of them ran down the hallway Nightwalker had just come running out of.

"I went this way before!" she shouted, panting. "I didn't see a ship!" _Alright, enough of this,_ she thought. She activated her flight and grabbed the Doctor, speeding down the hallway faster than they would have been able to run.

"It doesn't look like a normal ship!" he yelled, holding on for dear life. At the same time, he managed to act as though he ran into flying girls on alien spaceships every day.

"Directions!" she yelled back, stopping and turning around at the sight of a hallway filled with more rolling tin cans.

"Take a left! Left!" he yelled in her ear. She couldn't keep this up for long. He was very skinny, but she only had so much strength. "Now go right!"

Nightwalker skidded to a halt midair. It was a dead-end hallway—with a big blue box at the end.

"Is this it?" she asked, panting, as she set him down.

"Yes!" He looked at the strange girl with worry as she started to collapse. "Hang on a minute, who are you?"

"Look, if you get us out of here alive, I promise to answer any questions you might have. You said this was a ship?"

"Yes, let me just find the key…" he turned it in the lock as the Daleks rounded the corner and the strange girl jumped to her feet. "In, in, in!" he shouted. She ran inside as fast as she could, which, even when she was exhausted, was pretty darn fast. He was hard on her heels, slamming the door behind them and running over to the console. She stopped for a moment to stare.

It was a large room, much bigger than it should have been. The room was round, with a domed ceiling lined with 3 by 2 foot curved panels, each of which had 6 circular objects on them. There was a raised dias in the center of the room that had several tree-like posts on the edges. The center of the room had a hexagonal control center with dozens of levers, switches, and buttons. There was a central column reaching to the roof that had wires hanging limply from it. The whole room had a rather grungy look to it, actually.

"Yes, yes, yes, it's bigger on the inside, there's a very good reason for that, which I will explain later," the Doctor said, pulling and flipping levers and switches. router. "Hang on."

The entire TARDIS console room rocked and shook back and forth. The strange girl he had picked up on the Dalek battleship shot straight up, levitating off the rocking floor. The Doctor, denied the luxury of flight, simply fell on his bum. After a moment or two, the room steadied and he stood up again. The girl landed next to him, looking around.

She was dressed in a strange way. It was clearly human fashions, and yet not from the right time period for her to be infiltrating a Dalek fleet. She wore a waterproof trenchcoat of a deep blue over a black turtleneck sweater and slacks. There was a battered black 1940's fedora set firmly on a head of black hair held back in a ponytail. Sharp gray eyes were studying everything around her.

"You've stabilized the portal to another dimension in here," she said, awestruck. "I can't decide whether that's sheer genius, idiocy, lunacy, or all three. How do you keep the Void from bleeding through?" There was an odd look in her eyes as she glanced around, as though another layer had dropped over her eyes. Her bright gray eyes were covered by a darker film. "You actually run this ship through the power of the Void? Oh, you're definitely crazy."

The TARDIS let out a rumble, and the girl laughed. "Oh, lovely lady, you don't scare me. Impress, though, yes. You're incredible." The girl took off again and soared among the upper reaches of the console room, examining the ceiling. She gently stroked one of the panels, and the TARDIS made another rumble. This one, though was more like the purr of a satisfied cat. "Oh, you lovely thing," she murmured, laughing.

"Look, d'you mind coming down? I can't exactly talk to you if you're…" he gestured. "…fluttering about like that.

The strange girl descended, landing in front of him. He put on his glasses and pulled out his screwdriver, scanning the girl. "What are you?" he muttered. He moved the screwdriver up and down, trying to get a reading. For some reason, the screwdriver was not cooperating. It kept trying to tell him that the girl was part of the Time Vortex, but the readings for that were not quite the same as he was getting off this girl. And how could a girl be part of the Time Vortex? "Agh, it's not _working!_"

"Have you ever considered asking nicely? And stop _bleeping_ at me!" Moving faster than he would've guessed, the girl reached out and snatched the sonic screwdriver.

"Oi! What did you do that for?"

She held it just out of his reach. "Promise to stop bleeping me if I answer your questions?"

"Yes, now give it here!"

The strange girl handed him back the screwdriver. "What is it?"

"A screwdriver."

"Not like any screwdriver I've ever seen."

"It's sonic."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?"

"Me, that's who. Now, who are you, and how did you get on a Dalek spaceship?"

"Oh, is that what those tin cans were? And you can call me Nightwalker."

"What kind of a name is that?"

"What kind of a name is _Doctor?_ A doctor of what?"

"Everything. Who _are_ you?"

"Like I said, Nightwalker."

"And again, what kind of a name is Nightwalker?"

"Mine. Why did you think your screwdriver wasn't working?"

He pulled it out again and pointed it at her. It whirred. Same reading as before—part of the Time Vortex, but not the Vortex. "Because it's trying to tell me that you're part of the Time Vortex. Which is impossible."

The girl's—_Nightwalker's_ eyebrows went up. "Maybe…not…" she said, slowly. "Is it telling you that I'm exactly like the Time Vortex?"

"No, and that's the funny thing. It can't seem to decide whether you're part of the Time Vortex or something totally new. Physiology's human, but biological makeup…it can't figure out what you are. The readings are similar to the Vortex, but not quite." The Doctor stared at Nightwalker. She had a thoughtful look on her face.

"I think I have an answer for you," she told him. "I think your Time Vortex and my Void are similar—both aspects of the power of reality, but not quite the same thing." Nightwalker levitated into a cross-legged position that she had learned from Raven. "Storytime. You want to go first or should I?"

"Okay, how are you doing that?" the Doctor demanded, pointing at her. She wasn't wearing any form of jet-pack or anti-grav device. She was just doing it.

"Like I said, storytime. I'll go first. This isn't my metaverse, after all." She took a deep breath. "So, I go by Nightwalker. No offense, but I don't trust you enough to tell you my real name just yet. Anyway, given that you've crammed another dimension in here, you probably already know that reality is made up of hundreds of different worlds. There are parallel universes, which in themselves can contain dozens of different dimensions. A set of similar parallel universes—same people, roughly similar timelines—is known as a metaverse. At least to me. I don't think anyone has studied the different universes and the Void the way I have. The Void runs outside, over, under, and through every different dimension and universe. I was born with a powerful attraction to the Void and an ability to manipulate it. I started walking through it between universes. At first, it was only an unconscious action, happening in dreams. Eventually, though, there was a…catalyst…and I developed the ability to do it while awake. Unfortunately, that incident resulted in the loss of my original body. I was able to fashion a new body from Void stuff, one that made it easier for me to move between universes and granted the ability to fly and breathe underwater. In addition, I can manipulate and channel the energy of the Void to generate basic items, store items in the Void, and occasionally, channel it as other things. I was also born with not only an innate gift of empathy, so I can not only tell what others are feeling and project emotions at them; but also a limited telepathy. If I'm physically touching someone, I can communicate telepathically with them. So that's my story. How about yours? How exactly did you wind up with a big blue box powered by the Void? Or, Time Vortex, rather. Come on, it's got to be at least as interesting as mine, if not more."

"You're a psychic? A _human_ psychic?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes. Like I said, not only a different universe, but an entirely different metaverse. Where I was born, there were several people who were—different. It wasn't always a good thing. But I've been places where different people were celebrated. Where they were heroes. I've just come from one of those, actually." Something about what he had said occurred to her. "So if you aren't human, what are you?"

The Doctor just stared at this very strange woman, unsure what to make of her. He took off his glasses and leaned closer to her, his hand reaching for his sonic screwdriver.

"Don't you dare!" she snapped. "I said no more bleeping at me, and I meant it. You got me out alive and I answered your questions. As far as I'm concerned, we're even. I can leave right now, and we can be done with each other forever."

"So why haven't you?" he asked her. "Door's right there if you really want to leave."

"I don't," she said. "What I do want are some answers" She gave a grudging smile. "Unfortunately, I have been cursed with an insatiable curiosity. That's why I left my friends to go exploring different worlds. You happen to pique that curiosity."

"You ran away to go explore reality?" the Doctor asked her.

"Yes. I wanted to travel. I wanted to see as much as I could." She smirked. "I learned a long time ago that life could be cut short at any moment. So why not seize opportunity?"

"Do you ever get lonely?" he asked, quietly.

"Honestly, yes. But I can't exactly ask anyone to come with me. I'm the only person I've ever met who can walk in the Void and emerge unscathed. I can't guarantee anyone else's safety. I can vanish into other worlds whenever I want or need escape. Other people would be trapped. So yes, I get lonely. But everywhere I go, I meet people, and I help them. So in a way, I have more friends than anyone else in any dimension."

The Doctor was silent. For a moment, it felt as though he was talking to himself. The loneliness, the desire for freedom…he saw that in this girl.

It had been three months since Davros's scheme to destroy reality had failed. The Doctor had been traveling alone, taking the opportunity to be a tourist. Even though it had only been three months, he was quite lonely. Some company would be welcome…

"Again, who are you? As far as I know, you're a lunatic who decided to pack another dimension inside a blue box and run it off of a dangerous energy force. Nothing I've seen so far has changed my mind."

"I'm a Time Lord," the Doctor said. "I'm from the planet of Gallifrey in the constellation Kasterberous. And I'm 903 years old."

Nightwalker sat there, glad that her flight was pretty much automated. If it hadn't, she probably would have crashed to the ground.

"Wow," she said, dryly. "You don't look a day over 896."

He squinted at her. "Did you just make a joke?"

She acted shocked. "Me? Joke? Never." Nightwalker gestured at the interior of the "spaceship." "So what is your ship called?"

"Nightwalker, meet the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

"Time and…wait, do you mean this is a time machine?"

The Doctor grinned at her. "Oh, yes!" He pulled up a screen. "Right now, we're on Earth. It says it's 2014. Great year. Lots happening. First appearance of…well, go and take a look."

She raised an eyebrow at him, but returned her feet to the floor and walked over to the door. Opening it, she stuck her head outside.

"Oh, wow!"

The Doctor grinned as she stepped outside, but followed her. The TARDIS had landed on the coast of northern California. In front of them, steep cliffs dropped away into crashing waves at the base. There was a small beach down there, littered with driftwood. Behind them, a grassy meadow extended for about a hundred yards before reaching a pine forest. Nightwalker smiled. She had grown up near a place like this one. Being here felt like being given a slice of home. She stood at the edge of the cliff, staring at the water and sky that went on forever.

The Doctor walked up behind her. "So, d'you like it?"

"It's wonderful," she told him. "So, if you have a ship that can take you anywhere in time and space, what do you do with yourself?"

"Oh, travel mostly," he said. He stuck his hands in his pocket and they walked along the cliff. "Try and have some fun or do some good wherever I land."

"All by yourself?"

"Well, not usually. Sometimes I travel with…friends. Companions. But not right now."

They walked in silence for another few feet until Nightwalker asked, "What happened to them?"

The Doctor stopped dead for a minute. Nightwalker could sense a spike in his emotions—sorrow, which seemed to be ever-present; loneliness, which he always felt like; and a hint of anger. Not at her; at himself, and something else.

"I'm sorry," she said, quickly. "You don't have to answer that. That was rude."

"No, it's okay," he said. He resumed walking.

"I can tell that it's not. Empathy, remember?"

"Ah."

"Sorry. It's kind of an automatic thing." She concentrated on her shields, raising them up enough to block what he was feeling. "Okay, now I can't."

"It really is fine, though. The people who travel with me…most leave me, for lives of their own. A few got left behind. And very few—hardly any, mind you…well, they died."

She didn't look at him, just at the ground in front of her feet. "I know the feeling. It never gets easier, does it? Having the people you care about leave?"

"No. No, it doesn't." They were on their way back to the TARDIS now. "Actually, right now, I'm traveling alone. Have been for a little while. I know that you have travels of your own, and you can go where you want, but, well, it's just that, the TARDIS is very big, and there's always room…"

"Wait," Nightwalker stopped and held up her hand. "Are you asking me…to come along?"

"Well, yes. I suppose I am."

She stared at him. "A lunatic with a spaceship drops out of nowhere, kidnaps me, and saves my life, then asks me to come along?"

The Doctor was nervous for a moment. She sounded angry…

But she grinned. "I would _love_ to."

He was delighted. "Well, come on then. Allons-y!" He flung open the door and gestured inside. "All of time and space—in this universe, anyway—awaits!"

She laughed and walked inside. "Well, let's see what we can do about that."

He followed her in, and the door slammed shut behind him. Nightwalker pointed at the panel, a sparkle in her eyes. "Can I drive?"

**I am definitely going to continue this story, but I do not know when it will be updated. I can promise that it will contain an angry Nick Fury, which should be...interesting...  
**


	2. Crash Landing

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this," the Doctor muttered as Nightwalker studied the control panel. "Remind me again why I'm letting you do this?"

"Because I'm adorable and irresistible and infuriatingly persistent. You were wise to give in early. Your life would have been hell otherwise. And because, contrary to all appearances, I actually somewhat know what I'm doing." She took a bite of a granola bar, and the Doctor noticed the sudden appearance of a knapsack next to her feet.

"Where did that come from?" he demanded.

"Had it stashed in the Void. Got hungry and pulled it out. Let's see…this is time, yes? Let's try…August, 2012. I always liked that year. How about rural New York? The Catskills, maybe? Where's the geography coordinates?"

The Doctor sighed and pointed her in the right direction. After tapping in a random latitude and longitude that he assured her was in fact located in the Catskills and getting all the switches set, he let her pull the lever.

The difference was immediate and disturbing. While the TARDIS usually shook on trips, it was nothing like this. It felt to the Doctor like the time he had the not-so-bright idea of visiting San Francisco on April 18th, 1906. He struggled to his feet to see that Nightwalker was clinging to the console, looking like the life was draining out of her. He managed to make his way across the violently rocking floor to break her away from the console. As soon as her hands were removed, she promptly passed out on the floor.

As soon as that happened, the lights went dark. The Doctor looked at the engine to see the power draining away.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!" he yelled. It was apparently enough to wake Nightwalker. She blinked muzzily and got to her feet.

"Whe…r…we…" she muttered. Shaking her head, she tried again. "Where are we?"

"Another dimension, apparently. The TARDIS is shutting down!"

"What?!"

"She runs off the stuff of my universe. Since she isn't _in_ that universe, she has no power source. She's shutting down!"

"Wait, I thought you said she runs off the Vortex."

"Yes, _that_ Vortex, not this one. Pay attention!"

Nightwalker shook her head again. "Shit. Wait, where's the engine?"

"The what?"

"Engine! As in, thing that makes it run. Power source. Where?"

"Under the grates. Why?"

"I have an idea." Nightwalker stepped back and pulled up the nearest grate. Removing her coat and hat, she hooked her knees on the edge of the grating and hung down. "I swear, if I ever make it back to the Tower, I will never again complain about the trapeze exercises Robin loves to make me do," she muttered. Activating her second layer of sight that allowed her to view and channel Void energy, she studied the engine.

Fortunately, the Time Vortex was similar enough to the Void that she could see where a faint glow of it coalesced around the wires. Instead of fading away like she would expect, the machine was—absorbing it?

"Oh, you clever thing," she muttered. "You're storing it! But you just need a _little_ push…"

Nightwalker put her hand on the TARDIS circuits. The machine seemed to be vaguely telepathic. She was hoping that would work with her own abilities.

Communing with the machine was strange. It was huge and ancient, and yet tiny and new at the same time. It was as though it was living in every moment, in every lifetime. It was incredible, and terrifying.

It was a lot like the Void.

She sent a feeling of curiosity/assistance/friendliness at it. When it responded in the affirmative, she sent another mental trigger—that of what the Void felt/worked/behaved/smelled like. Along with another question—

_Will this integrate into your systems?_

It responded in a limited affirmative. Yes, it would work enough to run the ship and get them home, but it would need time and would only work once.

_I can work with that._

She collected and summoned Void energy, then started to let it slowly trickle into the systems. It sped away, feeding into several different conductive units. Nightwalker sent more and more, trying to estimate how much it would take to move this ship back through the Void. It was exhausting, tedious work. Eventually, her legs cramped and she fell into the circuits, but she didn't notice until the Doctor pulled her out. When that happened, her concentration wavered, and she came out of her trance.

"Mmmm…" she said. "How long…out…"

"You were hanging like that for two hours," he said, sounding worried.

"Only two?" she asked. "Rob'll…be annoyed. He's always said I could make three."

"What were you _doing?_" he demanded.

She held up three fingers. "Three…two…one…"

The lights flickered back on. He stared at her in shock. "What did you do?"

"Food?" she asked, weakly. "Granola bars…bag…"

"Right, right," he said, handing her two. She tore them open and ate them at a pace that would have made a speedster proud.

When she finished them and no longer felt like she was going to faint again, she explained. "Your ship runs through the power of the Vortex. Since the Vortex doesn't quite exist here, all that power would have been drained away, but your lady is clever. She's been reabsorbing all the energy before it could fade away. All she needed was a little push. The Void is similar enough that I could channel the energy and integrate it into the circuits. It's using it to power up now. Eventually, it'll be enough for one trip to get you home. For now, it's enough that the TARDIS can use the remaining Vortex energy to run the lights. Though I'm pretty sure that's only for here, and that everything else is shut down. Needs to conserve energy."

"How long is eventually?"

"I'm gonna guess a week."

"A _week_? We're stuck on some parallel Earth with no transport and no idea of what's going on for a whole _week?!_"

"Hey," she snapped. "That's the whole reason I'm here. Finding new worlds. Hacking stuff. Making sure they don't cross over. Okay, I'm kind of failing on that last part, but I still want to look around. Are we even in the Catskills?"

"I don't know. I haven't looked outside. And the monitors are down."

"Well, then I'm going to look." Nightwalker got to her feet and put on her coat and hat. Sliding her hands inside her pockets, she walked over to the door, whistling. She opened it up and stepped out to be met with the barrel of a gun.

"Crap."

She slammed the door behind her before they could see inside.

The Doctor looked up from where he was examining the console when he heard the door slam.

"Nightwalker?" he called. When he received no response, he walked over to the door and opened it. There was a squad of armed soldiers outside. One of them held a gun to Nightwalker's head.

"Doctor, get out of here," she said, deadly calm.

He ignored her. "Oi! You lot! Stop that!"

"Shut the door," Nightwalker said, quickly..

The man holding her jammed the gun against her temple "Shut up," he ordered her. The Doctor shut the door firmly behind him and glared at the men.

"What do you think you're doing? Pointing a gun at an innocent girl? She can't be older than sixteen!"

"I'm eighteen, actually," she said. "And Doctor, it's really best for everyone if you stop talking now."

"You should be ashamed of yourselves! What has she ever done? You accidentally teleport inside a secret base and everyone treats you like a criminal!"

"Doctor," Nightwalker said, trying urgently and desperately to get his attention without angering her captor.

"I mean, _honestly!_ Pointing a gun at her head? And without provocation? I am sure that if you looked throughout this entire world you would not find a girl more selfless, more guiltless, than this girl here."

"_Doctor_?" Nightwalker said, getting his attention.

"Oh, what now? I'm on a roll here!"

"Doctor, shut up."

"What? Why?"

"_Because,_" she said, gritting her teeth. "I happen to be an escaped prisoner here. Now please just get back in the box."

"_What?"_

"Listen to your friend, whatever your name is." A calm voice spoke from the back of the room. The Doctor turned to see a woman with short red hair dressed in a black jumpsuit.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Agent Romanov," she said, quite calmly. "Your friend there was held in custody four months ago. After somehow breaking out of her cell, she then proceeded to jump off the side of the helicarrier and survive a thirty thousand foot drop. Now I don't know whether she's indestructible—"

"I think the fact that I'm very afraid of this gun pointing at my head is a fairly strong indicator that I am _not_," Nightwalker called out.

"Trank her," Agent Romanov ordered. Before the Doctor could protest, the man holding Nightwalker pulled out another gun and injected her with a blue fluid. Her eyelids fluttered and closed.

"What was that for?" he demanded, turning to face the woman.

"And him," she said. Before he could react, there was a prick in his arm. The world blurred and went dark.

* * *

The Doctor slowly stirred awake. He had been asleep. That was unusual. Why was he asleep?

And why on earth was someone singing?

"So, bye, bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry-y. Them good old boys were drinking whiskey in Rye, singing this'll be the day that I die…This'll be the day that I die." There was a pause. "Oh good, you're awake."

The Doctor groaned and sat up. He was lying on a padded bench built into a nook in the wall in a small cell, probably no more than eight feet by eight feet. There were lights overhead, also built in, and covered with a thick layer of glass. Other than that, the cell was bare. Two of the other walls were metal, and one was a thick, dense plexiglass. Directly across from his cell was an identical one. Nightwalker sat in this one, in her hovering cross-legged position that she seemed to find comfortable. Looking around, he could see a vent on the wall of his cell. Too small to crawl through, even if he had been a midget. Nightwalker's voice seemed to be coming from there.

"Nightwalker?" he asked. "How long—"

"I don't know. They took my watch, coat, shoes, and hat away. Your coat too. As well as those awful sand shoes you wear. They're letting us communicate, so I figure they want us to let something slip. I've been whiling away the time singing songs. I just finished two renditions of American Pie, and before that I managed to get through the entire album of Wicked—be glad you slept through that—so I figure you've been out about half an hour longer than I have. I was just about to start on the music from Les Misérables. Care to join me? I need a soprano."

"What are we doing here? And why are they after you?"

Nightwalker sighed. "I may or may not have accidentally teleported into one of their bases four months ago. They found that rather suspicious, so they locked me up and tried to interrogate me. I escaped and jumped off the side. The rest…" she switched languages. "Vorbiti Romani?" _Do you speak Romani?_

"Da." _Yes. _"TARDIS circuite de traducere."_ TARDIS translation circuits._

She continued speaking in Romani. "I came to this metaverse on accident and landed on this ship. Something big was going on, so their big chief guy, I don't know the word for it in Romani, came and tried to interrogate me. Asked me a bunch of questions about the 'Avengers' and the 'Tesseract.' No idea what those are. I started to hassle him, so he gave up on me. After he left, I channeled a bit of Void energy to break the lock and jumped over the side of their floating aircraft carrier. Went between halfway through and wound up in a universe where everyone talked backwards, so I forgot about this place till now. Knew it would come back to bite me in the _sezut._" The TARDIS didn't translate swear words.

"So now we wait for the big guy," she said, switching to English. "I think his name was Fury, if you can believe that. Very cliché. Or they might send in their pet superheroes. I honestly don't know. Do you care if I sing?"

"Go right ahead," the Doctor said. He lay down on his bunk as her rendition of "Do You Hear The People Sing?" came floating through the vent.

* * *

Nick Fury was not happy.

He was never happy, but today he was especially not happy.

First, Banner had dropped off the radar again. It shouldn't take long to find him, but until then, he had Ross breathing down his neck with the threat to deploy the Hulkbusters Unit unless he could at least get a blip on Banner.

Second, the equipment had detected an energy surge similar to the Tesseract in the Catskill mountains. Since the Tesseract was supposed to be on Asgard, they had deployed a team immediately. Further investigation had revealed that the only thing out of the ordinary in the area was a blue wooden box, very much like a phone box. In fact, it looked like one of those police boxes that had been everywhere in Britain in the 1960's. Since this was New York, 2012, it was very odd. No energy readings had been coming off the box, but they had collected it anyway and brought it back to the helicarrier. That had been two hours ago.

Half an hour ago, the box had woken up. It started to give off energy readings unlike anything that had ever been seen before. After moving it to a lab, he had set up a squad of agents and Agent Romanov, who was worth two squads by herself, outside it.

And of course, twenty minutes ago, the first thing that came out had to be their biggest mystery of all time. A strange girl who had appeared in the bridge of the helicarrier right before the Battle of New York, dressed in a trenchcoat and fedora. She had been locked in a cell across from Loki, and when Fury interrogated her, she had known far too much about him. After he stormed out, she had done something to the lock that the security cameras had been unable to catch, allowing her to just walk out. Then, of course, she had made her way up to the deck of the helicarrier and jumped off.

And promptly vanished.

Now she was back, and looking to be just as much trouble as she had the first time. Fury could already feel his headache forming.

After walking out of the blue box, followed by a strange man with a British accent, she had been rather uncooperative, interrupting constantly. Natasha had ordered both of them tranked, and they were currently in cells directly across from one another. He stared at the screen as the girl's body stirred.

"Sir, she's waking up," one of the agents announced.

"I can see that, Agent Roth," he said icily. "Turn on the volume. Have you got a report on their possessions yet?"

"No, sir," she said. "They're still being searched."

On screen, the girl sat up. "Owwww," she muttered. "Shit. Why is it always tranks?" Taking in her surroundings, she let out a frustrated noise, especially when she saw that she no longer had her coat or hat. She looked directly at the camera, groaned, and started to pace, muttering quietly.

Agent Roth turned up the volume. Director Fury, listening, was mildly surprised to learn that the girl had a cursing vocabulary that could probably rival his. After several choice phrases in a rant that went on for three minutes, she finally ran out of steam. The girl let out a sigh and sat cross-legged.

In the air.

Two full feet above the ground.

Director Fury stared at the screen. "How is she doing that?" he muttered. It would explain why she wasn't dead after jumping thirty thousand feet.

And then, of course, she started singing.

"_Good news, she's dead, the Witch of the West is dead. The wickedest witch there ever was, the enemy of all of us here in Oz, is dead! Good news! Good news!"_ She went on like that for quite some time, running through every song from Wicked (which Fury's girlfriend at the time had made him see) until she reached "For Good." Even then, she only stopped to think before starting on "American Pie." She ran through the entire song from memory, which was rather impressive, twice. At that point, the man woke up. They had a quick conversation in English, with her telling him things SHIELD already knew. They did manage to get the girl's name, which appeared to be Nightwalker. Unfortunately, after telling the man how she jumped off the side of the helicarrier, the two of them switched to a strange language. Agent Romanov, who was also watching the proceedings, frowned.

"D you know what they're saying?" Director Fury asked.

"No. I think it's…Romani? How on earth did she become fluent in Romani?"

The two prisoners finished their conversation in Romani and switched back to English.

"_So now we wait for the big guy._ _I think his name was Fury, if you can believe that. Very cliché. Or they might send in their pet superheroes. I honestly don't know. Do you care if I sing?"_

_"Go right ahead."_

There was silence from the man as the girl started singing music from Les Miserablés.

"Her voice isn't half bad," Natasha commented. Fury glared at her.

"Just go check in on R&D and start the interrogation." He stormed out of the room, and Natasha chuckled before heading the other way.

* * *

Natasha held back a sigh as she stepped into the R&D department. She couldn't decide which was worse: Melvin Brown, a massive geek who, like half of the male agents of SHIELD had a crush on her, or…

"Agent Romanov! SO glad you could make it. Welcome to the Casa del SHIELD."

Stark. Of course he would be here.

"Mr. Stark, why are you here?"

"Curious. Plus, I left some tech here I wanted to grab, and after I saw Marty here—"

"It's _Melvin._ Agent Romanov, it's always a pleasure to see you. I hope—"

"Gentlemen, please. I'm here to check out what you found in our guests' pockets before I interrogate them."

"Well, that is an interesting question," Tony said. He gestured at the table behind them. "The girl's stuff was pretty straightforward. Fedora, boots, all clean. Watch, designed to link to the nearest satellite to get an accurate date and time. Maybe some other tech in it, but I can't get in. Only thing in the pockets of her coat was the wrapper for a protein bar and this." He held up a foot-long metal tube with capped ends.

"What is that?" Natasha asked.

"Not sure. Looks kinda martial-artsy to me. What are those things called, those, those Eskimo sticks?"

"Escrima sticks. And there are usually two of them. What do those buttons do?"

"Not sure. Let's find out!" Tony pressed the first one. Natasha tensed ever so slightly, ready to duck in case it was a bomb, when it extended at both ends to become three feet long.

"That could have been a bomb! I told you we needed to wait for clearance! What if it had blown up? Or released poisonous gas? Or a virus?" That was Melvin, working himself into a tizzy. Honestly, how did such a nervous guy end up in the Research and Development program for one of the most dangerous US government divisions?

"Well, there's one more button." Tony pressed that button as well, and the ends of the staff started to crackle and buzz, almost causing Melvin to have an aneurysm.

"What is it? Why is it doing that?"

"Agent Brown," Romanov snapped. "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Melvin met her angry eyes for a total of 1.5 seconds before looking away, gulping, and stammering out some excuse before running out of the room.

"How strong is the wattage?"

"Fifty thousand volts. About as much as the average taser."

"An electrified bo-staff. Brand new, apparently. What about the guy?"

"Ah…he's a little more complicated." Tony retracted the bo-staff by pushing the button again and set it down. He pulled up a tan duster from where it lay on the table and offered her the pocket. "Pull something out."

Natasha gave him an odd look and he shrugged. "Sounds weird, I know, but try it."

She reached in. As strange as it sounded, she couldn't feel the cloth lining of the pocket. Her hand grasped around something and she pulled it out. It was…

"A banana?" she asked.

"Another one?" Tony said. He took it from her and tossed it on a pile of them behind them. "That makes twenty. Man, this guy likes bananas."

"How big are his pockets?"

"I honestly have no idea. We've been pulling stuff out of them ever since we got it." He stood aside and gestured to the pile of stuff on the table. Natasha looked at it all. There were the aforementioned twenty bananas, a rubber chicken, an odd gadget that looked like an old-fashioned tape recorder with an antennae, 3-D glasses, jelly babies of various colors, a thing that looked like a wallet with a blank piece of paper inside, a colorful scarf, a stethoscope, a pair of regular glasses, two things vaguely resembling castanets, and a small silver tube with a round blue gemstone on the end that reminded Natasha uncomfortably of Loki's staff.

"There was an apple with a face carved on it, but it disappeared after we removed it," Tony told her. "What is all this crap?"

"No idea," Natasha said. She carefully picked up the small tube and the shrunken bo-staff, comparing them. They were clearly of different makings. While the bo-staff was new, the small tube was worn and showed the marks of constant use. "I'll be sure to ask."

* * *

**So we finally get to SHIELD and I can officially list this story as a crossover. I hope you're enjoying the story! I got the idea of them pulling a ton of stuff out of the Doctor's pockets from "Improbable Meetings of the Wibbly-Wobbly Kind" by Wednesday1990 (Go read it. Right now. It is amazing.) The songs all came from my own head. (I actually do know all the words to American Pie, which I regard as my single greatest achievement to date.) Plus, I really think that Nightwalker would probably start singing if she had nothing else to do. She's just that kind of person. **

**As for the Romani, I couldn't find a translator online, so I used Romanian. I figured that she learned it from Dick.**

**Anyway, next chapter will involve interrogations. Verrry interesting interrogations… But, I do not know when it will be up. I'm guessing a week or so. If anyone's wondering when I will get around to posting my YJ story, again, I don't know. But I'd like to either finish this or make some really good progress on both of them before I get around to that one.**


	3. Interrogations and Interesting Meetings

**Yay! This chapter is up!**

**Although it might kinda suck. **

**Thanks to dog1056 and Guest for reviewing. Here is the update you requested!**

Nightwalker was singing through "I Dreamed a Dream" when there were footsteps in the hallway. She opened her eyes and turned around mid-air to see the red-haired woman from earlier walking down the hall.

"Agent Romanov, I presume?" Nightwalker asked. The woman ignored her and walked over to the Doctor's cell.

"You first," she said.

He got to his feet and dusted off. "Oh, well, it's about time something happened around here! Where are we going? Is it to the bridge? I _love_ bridges. Did you take my coat? Can I have my bananas back?"

"Doctor," Nightwalker said. "I don't think they're going to give you your bananas anytime soon. Where were you keeping them, anyway?"

"My pockets, of course!" he said. "They're bigger on the inside."

Nightwalker sighed and leaned back. "Do you have anything I can read? I'm getting rather bored in here."

"No," Natasha said calmly. She took out a pair of handcuffs.

"Oh, what are you doing that for?" the Doctor asked, looking like a disappointed puppy.

"They're to restrain you. Turn around, please."

"Oh, you don't need to do that. I'm not going anywhere."

"She's with the American government, Doctor, they see terrorists everywhere. I don't think you can talk her out of cuffing you."

"Worth a shot."

"Sir, hold out your wrists, please." Natasha snapped the cuffs on his wrists.

"Can I have my shoes back?" he asked. "My feet are cold."

"No."

"Why weren't you wearing socks?" Eve asked.

"Who has time for socks?"

"Sane people, which you clearly aren't."

"Enough!" Natasha said. "Sir, come with me. Now."

* * *

Natasha held back a sigh as she looked across the table at the strange man. It looked like it was going to be one of those days.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Oh, you said it! That's brilliant."

Natasha held back another sigh. It was definitely going to be one of those days.

"Why are you here?"

"Crash landing, I'm afraid. I let Nightwalker drive. She claims she's fixed the problem, but that it'll take a week."

"How long have you known this Nightwalker?"

"Oh, about four hours, I think."

"What, exactly, did you let her drive?"

"My ship, of course."

"Does this ship have any relation to the strange blue box you came out of?"

"That _is_ my ship. Where is it, anyway?"

Natasha could not restrain a blink. "Not here."

"Did we land here or did you collect us?"

"We found your box in a meadow in the Catskills. Since it was apparently alien tech, we did indeed pick it up."

"You aren't related to Torchwood, are you?"

"I have never heard that name before."

"Well, that's good, then. So we are in America? 2012?"

"Yes. What is your agenda here?"

"Agenda?" he looked confused at the question. "Well, I don't know. Coincidence, mostly. Nightwalker wanted to drive and crashed the ship. I suppose that wherever I go, I try and have some fun. It doesn't usually work out too well. Winds up being more of a saving-worlds thing. She said that she ran off to explore, so I suppose it's much the same for her as well."

"What were you keeping in the pockets of your coat?"

"Oh, lots of things. I can't remember it all now. But the last things I put in there were my sonic screwdriver and glasses."

"And this… 'sonic screwdriver' is not a weapon?"

"Of course not! I don't carry or condone weapons of any sort. Especially not guns. Why were you pointing one at Nightwalker? That was rude!"

"Well, this "Nightwalker," as you call her, is an escaped fugitive, and she was carrying an electrified bo-staff," Romanov informed him.

"Really? I didn't know that. I'm sure she had a reason. She doesn't seem like one to kill."

"You said that you met her four hours ago."

"Well, I'm an excellent judge of character. Any chance on getting out of here?"

"Not yet. Are you an Asgardian?"

"Nope," the Doctor said, popping the p. "I'm not human, though."

"So you're an alien."

"Yup."

"Have you been to Earth before?"

"Oh, all the time. I quite like it here. Well, it wasn't this Earth. It's a long story. I'm from another dimension."

Natasha stared at him. "And that's what you meant by a crash landing?"

"Yup. I blame Nightwalker."

* * *

Nick Fury walked down the hallway. The girl had finally stopped singing and was stretched out on the empty air. She looked up as he approached.

"Oh, not you again," she complained.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he demanded.

She stood up and walked over to the glass. "If I recall, you tried this approach last time, and it didn't exactly work out for you. You're persistent, I'll give you that. What, you aren't even letting me out of my cell? Or did you only have the one interrogation room."

"You might as well cooperate, or you will be in that room for the rest of your life," Nick Fury snapped at her.

"Ooh, I'm so scared. Look, I actually…do not have an explanation for being her. Damn."

"Skip the crap. Who are you?"

The girl let out a sigh. "You can call me Nightwalker. The Doctor doesn't know my name, and I don't know his. We just met four hours ago. Look, I don't care what you do with me, but let him go, please. I ran into him and insisted on piloting his ship. He has absolutely nothing to do with this, and is in no way a threat. And now he's in the wrong dimension and it's my fault." _Shit. Shut up now, Eve._

"Wrong dimension?" Fury asked.

Nightwalker sighed again and levitated into a sitting position. At least she could talk technical at this guy and get away with it. And at least she had plans for this sort of thing.

"It's a very, very long story. Let's keep it short: Reality is big. It's weird. There are many different universes. Groups of similar universes are called metaverses. I have the ability to move between universes through the Void, which is basically what surrounds and runs through every universe. Before you ask, since I know you will, it isn't dangerous and cannot be weaponized. It's just a part of life. Last time we met, when I escaped, I passed out of this universe before I hit the ground when I jumped off the side."

Nick Fury was not shocked. He was never shocked. He was merely mildly surprised

"Why are you here?"

"Because I had a month of vacation and crashed a spaceship."

Nick Fury glared at her.

"What? I'm telling the truth! And since I actually didn't accidentally teleport onto your base this time, I'm going to guess that you collected us. Which is rude, by the way. Well, neither I nor the Doctor are threats, but we are stuck here for a week. Now will you please let me out before I break out again and embarrass you?"

Nick Fury continued to scowl at her. "We have no evidence that you are not a threat."

"Do you have any evidence that I am? You've run my prints and DNA and found no matches. You have no idea who I am or where I came from and no way to corroborate my story. I've told you that I plan on being gone within a week, unless there's a crisis, in which case I will do my best to help. I have no idea where I am or what the hell is going on, so how am I supposed to be an evil mastermind?"

"I don't know," he snapped at her.

There was a sudden change in the girl's demeanor. She was alert and attentive, leaning forward.

"Oh…" she said. "You really don't know. And that bothers you. You always know everything, but you know nothing about me."

"Stop it," Fury barked.

"Fine," she said. She leaned back, continuing to study him. "I'm serious about everything I've already said. I have no interest in being your enemy. I just want to not be locked up for the rest of the week and then leave. I might come back on my own terms, but I happen to be on a vacation right now, and I'd like to continue it."

"Vacation from what?"

"My job, of course. Which is something I'll be perfectly willing to discuss with you once I have the freedom to explain."

"You want me to let you out?"

"Yes, I've said this before. I want to get out of this cell. I'm bored. I don't want to run away, I just want to get out. I'm not your enemy."

Fury snorted.

"Think about it. Did I do anything last time besides break out of a confining cell, gain an amusing anecdote, and vanish? I could have taken down your whole system if I wanted to, but I didn't."

"And that's so very reassuring." Fury turned around and began to walk away.

"Could I at least have my hat back?" she called.

He didn't answer and let the door to the cell block swing shut with an audible _clang._

Nightwalker sighed as she stood up. _Well, I tried. Might as well bust out and find my hat._ She sank into the Void and looked around. It was like she was looking at a reverse map of the world, made up of emotional signatures. She studied it for one that was very familiar: the one she had put on her hat. It was nearby. She let herself move through the Void until she reached the spot and popped out.

* * *

Tony Stark was fiddling with the small silver tube when he heard footsteps behind him. "Ah, Agent Romanov," he said, without looking behind him. "How'd the interrogations go?"

"They aren't done yet," a voice said, calmly.

That wasn't the Black Widow.

Tony spun around, calling a piece of his Iron Man armor to him, ready to shoot the intruder.

It was a fairly tall girl dressed in a black sweater and slacks with her black hair confined in a ponytail. She held up her hands at chest level, showing that she was unarmed. "Relax, it's okay. I just came to get my hat."

"Oh," he said. The girl was looking around.

"Nice lab. Are you a scientist?"

"Excuse me? Do you even know who I am?"

"No, actually. Sorry. Interdimensional travel. Very confusing."

"Inter-what now?"

"Do you have a white board? It's easier to explain with pictures."

* * *

Nick Fury stalked back to the monitor room to find the agents in a tizzy. "What now?" he snapped.

"Sir, the girl…" Agent Hill said.

"What about her?"

"She's gone."

* * *

Tony was in the middle of an animated discussion with the strange girl concerning other dimensions, universes, and what she called "metaverses," when there was a bleep on his communicator.

"Just a sec," he told her. He took a step back and tapped his earpiece. "What's up?"

"_Mr. Stark, one of the unknowns in custody has escaped. We believe she will try to reclaim her weapons._"

"Oh, she's right here. Perfectly friendly. We're just discussing interdimensional travel. Come by! Or don't. Wait, custody?"

"I crashed a space and time ship in a meadow in the Catskills and they picked us up," the girl called, sketching something.

"_Mr. Stark, this is Director Fury. Please don't tell me that an unknown and possibly hostile prisoner is currently in your lab with some of the most dangerous weapons on Earth."_

"Um, no."

There was a heavy sigh over the communicator. "_Do NOT let her leave._"

"I'm not planning on going anywhere," the girl called back. "Although I should really check on the Doctor soon."

Tony looked at her. "You heard that?"

"I have excellent hearing. Now, you wanted to know about the temporal flux?"

"Yeah. So how does it work when you drop in the Void?"

* * *

Natasha was trying to get some more information out of the Doctor, but he insisted that Nightwalker would be able to explain better than he could.

"She says she has experience with this. It's all very complicated."

There was a beep on Natasha's communicator. She stood up, leaving the Doctor handcuffed to the table and left the room.

"Agent Romanov here."

"_Romanov, this is Director Fury. The girl has left her cell and is currently in the lab with Mr. Stark. They're discussing different dimensions. Is her accomplice still under wraps?"_

"Yes, sir."

"_Bring him to the lab. Keep him restrained._"

"Roger. On our way."

Natasha reentered the room. "Sir, you're coming with me."

"Brilliant! Where?"

* * *

Nightwalker was chatting with Mr. Stark, or Tony as he'd told her to call him, when she felt a very annoyed and angry presence right outside the door.

"Crap," she said. She grabbed her bo-staff and shot straight up. This lab had a very high ceiling, so she was well out of reach. She landed on one of the rafters and settled in to wait.

The door swung open as the Fury guy walked into the room. He glared around with his single eye before looking up.

"Very clever," she said. "Most people never think of looking up."

"Come down," he ordered her.

"I will have to respectfully decline that offer. I'm quite comfortable up here, as well as much safer than I would be down there. I'm willing to answer whatever questions you may have, though."

The Doctor walked in through the open door, with Agent Romanov directly behind him.

"Hello, Doctor!" she called.

He looked up. "Oh, hello, Nightwalker. What are you doing up there?"

"Keeping out of reach. How've you been?"

"Oh, fine, fine. They were just interrogating me. I told them about how you crashed the ship in another dimension, and now they want to talk to you."

"They could have asked politely," she remarked. "Oh, this is Tony, by the way. He's quite clever. Tony, this is the Doctor. He's even cleverer than you, so be nice."

"Hello," the Doctor said, cheerfully. "I'd shake your hand, but they put these handcuffs on me. No idea why. Could you pass me my screwdriver? It's that little silver thing."

"You mean this?" Tony asked, holding it out.

"Perfect! Thank you." The Doctor gingerly took the screwdriver, and before Director Fury or Romanov could protest, had unlocked his cuffs and slipped the screwdriver into his coat pocket. "Much better. Can we have a civilized conversation now? Nightwalker, could you please come down? I think you're making the nice people nervous."

"Oh, there are nice people in here? Where?" Still, she did drift down from the rafters, continuing to grip her bo-staff.

"Again, is it possible to have a civil conversation here?" the Doctor asked.

"First question," Fury said. He pointed at Nightwalker. "Who are you?"

"An empath with the ability to cross dimensions," she said, calmly. "He's a time-traveling alien. Shall we try this again?"

Natasha a Fury stared at her. Tony looked like a little kid on Christmas. Nightwalker sighed. "If we're done here, I have an actual job to do. Doctor, I'll see you tomorrow." She touched him on the forehead to initiate a psychic link before becoming a black silhouette and vanishing.

"Where did she go?" Nick Fury demanded.

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't know."

"She went to find and close wormholes," Tony said.

The director and the agent turned to him. "What was that?" Fury said in a cold voice.

"She was explaining before you showed up. Apparently, the alternate dimension she moves in has a tendency to leak through to other worlds. Since that can cause problems, her job is to find the places where it's leaking and plug them. She called them access points."

There was a beep from his communicator and he activated it. "Jarvis, what's up?"

"_Sir, there is someone violating the airspace above Stark Tower._"

"What? Who?"

"_It appears to be a young woman. She is hovering at the point where the Chitauri opened their wormhole_."

"Well, what is she wearing?"

"_A trenchcoat and a hat of some sort, sir._"

"Oh, that's fine. Leave her alone. And let me know when she's gone."

"_Very…good, sir._"

"She's above Stark Tower now. Right where the Chitauri came through."

"The who?" the Doctor asked.

Natasha and Tony exchanged glances. Fury sighed.

"Agent Romanov, brief him on the Avengers initiative and the events of the Invasion of New York. Then see what he knows about the Chitauri." Fury turned around and left the room, his coat snapping behind him.

"Come on over here and I can explain it. Then you can explain how this thing works,' Tony said to the Doctor, tapping the tape recorder thing.

* * *

**So yeah. Does it suck? I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. I do, however, want to finish this story because then I can start posting my Young Justice story. I cannot tell you exactly what will happen, because I am not sure myself. I don't exactly plan these stories out...**

**All I know is that it will involve Frost Giants. And possibly Loki. If that happens, I will be ignoring the events of Thor TDW. **

**Review if you have any suggestions, ideas, or critiques. You will make me very happy!**

**Oh, and the Doctor is not all-knowing in this story because A) They have landed in another universe, so how would he know about it? and B) In most stories I've read, he knows all about SHIELD and it gets kinda old. I thought that him not knowing anything would be more interesting.**


	4. Another Interesting Meeting

Nightwalker hovered in the air above New York. "Of course there's a portal in New York. There's _always _a portal in New York," she muttered. She reached her hands into it and siphoned away the Void energy, pushing it back into itself. The portal, which was fortunately fairly small, closed with a _pop._

"One down, gods only know how many more to go," she said. She slipped back into the Void.

While there, she considered something. When she got back, the Director would probably demand to know where they were.

Well, then. Might as well oblige him. It would certainly help keep things peaceful between them. She created a pad and pen, and scribbled down the location of the first before eyeing the currents of the Void.

_Well, here we go._ Nightwalker let the Void sweep her away to the next point.

* * *

Nightwalker had found and disabled or tagged half of the access points, and was taking a break when she detected a presence on the edge of the Void. It was apparently trying to open an access point from another dimension.

_Hmmm…_

She didn't want to shut it down right away. She was quite honestly curious who would do such a thing.

_Eve, you really, really stink at your job._

She decided to go investigate, letting the Void currents carry her to the area.

Nightwalker frowned as she came out of the Void around the North Pole. There was a tall man dressed in a black overcoat over black body armor. All of it had an old-fashioned look to it, like something from an Old Norse saga.

"What are you doing?" Nightwalker asked, landing next to him.

He spun around, glaring at her. Nightwalker sized him up. He had shoulder-length black hair, slicked and combed back over his head, and a long face that might have been handsome if not for the sneer he wore. "Foolish mortal. Do not meddle in affairs that do not concern you."

"Excuse me?" she said. "Sorry, but if you're opening portals, it is definitely my business." She lifted her hand and drained away the Void energy, sucking it from the portal until it closed.

A wave of anger from her left was the only warning she had as the man roared and ran at her, swinging his fist. Thanking every lucky star she had that Robin had insisted she learn how to counter moves like this, she dodged the punch, spun around, and grabbed his arms, bringing them up behind him. As soon as she touched him, she got a reading on his thoughts.

"Oh, you poor thing," she murmured, reading into his history. She knew it was incredibly invasive, but she needed to know what she was doing. Eve frowned as she came across evidence of another presence in his mind. It was strong, very strong, and she couldn't handle it alone. Maybe the Doctor could help, if she could just get them in the same room together. She released the Asgardian, stepping back.

"Loki, was it?" she asked. "Hello. Let's try this again. I'm Nightwalker." She held out her hand.

"What are you?" he snarled.

"I think the question here right now is, what are _you_?" she asked. "That's what you're trying to find out, isn't it? Except you're trying to define yourself by how others see you. You are trying to be a king. You no longer care if you are really meant to be a king. At this point, it has just become another goal to achieve for you." She was hiding the shakes she wanted to feel. There was definitely a malevolent presence in his mind. Not so overtly strong that he would notice it, but twisting and winding throughout his thoughts and actions, pushing him to do things he wouldn't usually do, pushing him to fight when peace would solve the problems. Because of that, he was a time bomb waiting to go off. She had to pretend that nothing was wrong.

His fingers twitched towards his belt, and she pulled out her bo-staff. "Now you're going to throw a knife at me. Please don't."

"You insignificant, mewling girl-child. You know nothing of what you say."

"Oh, I know exactly what I'm saying, Loki Odinson."

"Do not call me that."

"Why not? That's the name you have in your head, after all. It's what you see yourself as."

His face twisted into a horrible grimace of pain and rage. Before he could react, Nightwalker sheathed her staff, grabbed him by the coat, and took them both into the Void.

"I advise you not to lose contact with me," she said, calmly. Fortunately, the Void had twisted back on itself, so the place she wanted to reach was somehow directly next to this one.

She dropped out of the Void on a bluff set out in the ocean. It had once been a peninsula connected to the mainland, but now it was merely a large, steep-sided island set close to shore. Perfect for her purposes.

Releasing Loki, she stepped back and settled herself on a comfortably located rock. Loki jerked away from her, and staggered closer to the edge. When he saw where they were, which was approximately 3000 miles from their previous location, he stopped abruptly and spun around.

"What did you do, sorceress?" he snarled. "I am Loki, the once and future king of Asgard, and whatever witchcraft you have—"

"Oh, stop it," she interrupted. "I know you're lying. Look, neither one of us is going anywhere for the next few hours. We might as well try and have some civil conversation. Relax, you're in the same dimension. I've merely moved you to a place that was less frigid. You may be able to handle the cold, but I don't care for it."

"I have no interest in whatever you might or might not care for. I am a god, you puny—"

"Nice bluff, but I call. You're merely a being from another dimension who happens to be exceptionally long-lived and have a command over sorcery that the inhabitants of this world do not possess. Try again. Who are you? Be honest this time."

Loki glared at her. "I am Loki, of…" he stopped. He was a Jotun, by virtue of his birth, but he did not feel that he belonged to that race of monsters. Yet he was not quite of Asgard, either, no matter that he had been raised there. "…of nowhere."

She gave a small smile. "And I am Eve. I have no home either."

"You called yourself Nightwalker," he said, annoyed.

"There are many places in this world and others where having a secret name is necessary."

"But you told me," he said.

She tipped her head to the side. "I trust you."

Loki let out a bitter laugh and turned away. "You don't know me. If you did, you would know that no one trusts me."

"Oh, really?" she said. "Loki. Biological son of Laufey, king of the Jotuns. Known as the god of Mischief in Norse mythology. Raised by Odin and Frigga in an attempt to create peace between the realms. Brother of Thor, also known as the god of Thunder in Norse mythology. Attempted to conquer the Earth four months ago in an attention-seeking move. Foiled by the group now known as the Avengers. Returned to Asgard to face trial. You took on the form of a guard and escaped, then returned here to open a portal and bring a frost giant here." Eve raised an eyebrow. "That's where I came in. Have I missed anything?"

"Yes," he said, bitterly. "The part where the entire world is against me and betrays me." He turned away, only to feel a smack on his ear.

"How dare you!" he snapped, spinning around to face her. Her arms were crossed and she was glaring at him.

"Stop it," she snapped. "Stop the 'I'm-the-victim' act. Stop acting like a brat. Your foster dad was a major jerk. Accept that and get over it. Most dads are jerks. That doesn't make most kids run off and try to kill millions of people in an attempt to conquer another world. What did you honestly expect to gain from a move like that? Respect? Or hatred?"

Loki stared at her. "What _are_ you?" he asked.

She tucked a bit of hair behind her ear and removed her strange hat. "I'm an empath with the ability to cross dimensions. Other than that, I'm technically human."

"You are reading my emotions?" Loki asked.

"Got a problem with that?" she asked sardonically before looking up. "Crap."

Loki looked up to see a jet descending. It was much like the one that had appeared in Germany to arrest him. A strange man stuck his head out a window.

"Nightwalker!" he yelled. "What are you doing?"

"Making friends!" she yelled back. "And you?"

"Stealing a jet!" he said cheerfully.

"Well, land on the cliff and get over here! There's someone I want you to meet!"

The strange man stuck his head back inside the jet and it moved over to land thirty feet away on the mainland. The girl stood up, and right before Loki's eyes, she _flew_ over to the mainland, picked up the strange man and carried him back to the island.

"Loki, this is the Doctor. Doctor, this is Loki. Be nice."

Loki glared at this strange "Doctor." That was the Midgardian word for healers, was it not? So why did he use it as his name?

The girl turned to the man and had a quick muttered conversation in a language he did not recognize. When they finished, they both turned to him with deadly serious expressions. Before he could ask what they thought they were doing, they both lunged at him and placed their hands on his head.

After Nightwalker introduced the Doctor to Loki, she then ignored the supposed god in favor of a quick conversation in Romani.

"Doctor_, __te rog spune-mi că ești psihică într-un fel_." (Please tell me you're psychic in some way.)

"_Da. De ce?"_ _(Yes, why?)_

"_Nu__este__o altă prezentă__în mintea lui__. __Avem nevoie__pentru a scăpa de__ea__înainte de a avea__vreo sperantă__de__o__conversatie normală__cu__acest__tip__." _(There's another presence in his mind. We need to get rid of it before we have any hope of a normal conversation with this guy.)

_"Ce, acum?" _(What, now?)

_"Da. Du-te." _(Yes. Go.)

They both turned back to Loki, and before he could react, lunged at him. The Doctor placed his hands on the man's temples, while she placed hers on his arm., knocking him out first thing before he could protest. That was the signal for whatever malignant presence had planted itself inside the man's mind to rear up and attack them.

From there, it was a hard-fought battle. The presence was wound throughout his psyche like some poisonous, twisted vine. It was even in his childhood memories; twisting them, distorting them, casting a bad light on even the most hopeful, the most loving ones. The strongest influence, however, was in the more recent memories. The attack on New York—he may have thought that was his own idea, but he had been merely a pawn. The real Loki was buried somewhere in here, and he didn't even know it.

_Finding him seems like a good place to start._

Eve ripped up another of the poisonous vines and disintegrated it, not really wanting to think about the pain this would be causing Loki. She dove closer to the subconscious, the one place that could never truly be penetrated. Communicated with, blocked off, locked away, yes—but it was keyed to one person and one person alone. She didn't need to enter it; she just needed to find it.

After a long struggle through many layers of memories, she found it, walled away behind a sheet of "glass". A desperate figure was pounding away at it, helplessly yelling words that were lost to silence.

The figure would have been interesting to study for a psychologist. It shifted between blue and normal skin, the clothing between the fancy armor she had seen Loki wearing and tattered robes. The room it stayed in was a bizarre combination of a frozen wasteland, a palace, and a prison cell.

This was about the most invasive thing that could be done to a person. It was a viewing of their innermost thoughts and soul. Eve hated herself for doing this, but she knew she had to. Privately, she wondered what her own version of herself would look like. She suspected that it would have rainbow fur. (Long, painful story.)

She went directly up to the glass, made eye contact with the person behind it, raised her fist, and smashed the mental wall to pieces.

The 'man' who had been standing behind it fell forward. As soon as he had been released, she could feel his mental defenses pouring out. They worked like the immune system in a human body by attacking anything that didn't belong. While that was good, because it meant he could chase away the intruders himself, it was also bad, because she was also on the list of things-to-be-destroyed. She did the smart thing and ran away as fast as she could.

* * *

The Doctor was in the middle of fighting the influences over the man's mind when Nightwalker came flying out of nowhere. They were on the man's mental plain, which at the moment resembled a strange amalgam of a futuristic city and a frozen wasteland. The mental intruder had taken on the appearance of an enormous, thorny vine that he was in the middle of hacking to bits.

Or he had been, before Nightwalker came through what he would have sworn was a wall.

"Get out! Now!" she yelled, vanishing. The Doctor would have asked her what was going on, but at that moment a horde of yowling monsters appeared, attacking the strange vine, and heading for him. He quickly broke the deep mental contact he had established and stepped away from the man's prone form.

Nightwalker was bent over and panting. "I'd say we accomplished our mission." She winced. "Crud. Now I sound like Robin."

"Who?"

"A friend."

"What did you do?"

"Found the subconscious and released our friend and his mental defenses. He could handle it from there himself." She groaned, put a hand to her head, and swore.

"Oi! Language!"

"I just battled an evil enmity in someone else's skull after jumping them 3000 miles through a force that would tear anyone else apart. I think I'm entitled to a few swears. Oh look, he's coming to."

The man was indeed waking up. He let out a long, slow groan before sitting up. "What depth of Niffleheim was I just dragged through?" He froze as his memories caught up with his mind and jumped to his feet, pulling out a pair of throwing knives and glaring at them both. Eve sighed and took it upon herself to calm the angry and scared (though he would never admit it) Asgardian.

"I wish to apologize, Loki," she said calmly, holding up one hand and batting the Doctor away with the other. "I realize what we did was incredibly invasive, not to mention appallingly rude. It was, however, necessary. I trust your mind is now clear from any outside influences?"

Loki glared at her suspiciously for a moment before lowering his knife. "Thank you," he said, grudgingly forcing the words out from behind his teeth. "I am sure, however, that I could have handled it myself, given time," he added, making it clear where he stood.

"Of course," she said, neutrally, giving nothing away. "It was, however, necessary for myself and my friend here to intervene before anything unfortunate could happen. How are you feeling?"

He rubbed his head. "As though there was a fog in my mind, and now it is gone. I feel as if I can see clearly for the first time in…months."

"That sounds fairly typical," she said, calmly. "Again, our apologies for any invasiveness."

"Who _is_ this?" the Doctor asked suspiciously.

Nightwalker gave him a quick rundown on what she had learned. The Doctor glared at Loki, especially when the mention of the attempted invasion came up. He actually stalked over and glared at the Asgardian like he was a naughty child.

"Now why would you do something like that?" he demanded.

Loki could feel a mixture of shock and a completely unfamiliar emotion rising up in him. The unfamiliar one was one he hadn't felt in years, since his mother used to scold him, and now he was feeling it twice in one day, caused by both of these people.

It was shame.

The girl apparently detected it, since she came over, distracting the Doctor, who turned to her for an answer. "Why would he do something like that?" he demanded of her.

"I believe it had something to do with the evil force controlling him from inside his mind, Doctor," she said, calmly. "Cut him a little slack. He did manage to catalyze an event that would have otherwise been a long time in coming."

"Still," the Doctor said, scowling.

The girl cast a look at the jet and frowned. "Doctor, did you disable the tracking software?"

The Doctor looked bemused. "I don't think so."

The girl's frown deepened, but she changed the subject. "How did your conversation with Mr. Stark go?"

"Oh, quite well. He was a bit put out, but we had a very interesting conversation. He mentioned a home in New York—a tower of some sorts?"

Loki tensed visibly at this, but Nightwalker ignored him. "And how did you find us?"

"Oh, there's a tracker in your hat."

The girl swore loudly and pulled off her hat, examining it minutely until she found a small chip, which she dropped on the ground and crushed underfoot. "We need to go. Now."

Loki blinked at her. For some reason, his mind was still disoriented, even if it no longer contained another presence deliberately fogging it. "Why?"

She groaned. "After-effect of the mind clearing. You'll be disoriented for a while. But we can't afford to wait. SHIELD will be here any minute, and I doubt they'll be pleased to see you, Mr…" she trailed off. "I have a feeling you wouldn't care for Odinson or Laufeyson, and I don't really think they suit you. Would Mr. Friggason be acceptable?"

Loki was lucid enough to recognize what she was saying, and felt no need to protest. The name did indeed suit him much better than the other two he might have gone by. "That is fine."

"So we need to get out of here. Grab on." She held out one hand to the Doctor and one to Loki. "Jet's out, since they'll be tracking that. Do _not_ let go, whatever you do."

Loki took her hand and found that it was immediately caught and held in a death grip that might rival Thor's. The world swirled before his eyes and a feeling of weightlessness washed over him as he suddenly found himself standing (floating?) in empty nothingness. It almost overwhelmed him, but he had seen worse when he had fallen from the ruined Bifrost.

Nightwalker tugged on his hand, making him walk forward. He saw no specific goal in view—it was all a grey, swirling mass to him. So slowly that he didn't register the changes until they was complete, the grey shifted to black and back again.

By then, Nightwalker had apparently reached where she wanted to be. She shifted the Doctor's hand to her upper arm, aimed a palm at nowhere in particular, and conjured up a portal. The location on the other side showed large windows displaying a city skyline illuminated by thousands of bright windows. The scene seemed vaguely familiar to Loki, but it wasn't until he stepped through and got a good look at the penthouse he had once had the displeasure of being thrown about in that he realized just where they were.

"Oh."

Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, and Steve Rogers stood there, glaring at them.

"Clearly, this looks bad," Nightwalker said. "Would you just let me…"

Loki blinked. The room was starting to swirl before his eyes. He stumbled to the side, feeling absolutely exhausted.

"Oh, that's not good," he heard the man say. That was the last thing Loki remembered before his vision went dark and he sank into sleep.

* * *

**I LIVE!**

**Yes, I have returned from my extended absence. Writer's block is an absolute bitch. But I have temporarily conquered it. I do not know how long it will be until the next update. Sorry! It all depends on whatever ideas I may have. I honestly had no idea this was going to happen. Thank you so much to dog1056 for the Loki idea! And thanks to eesanchez95 and Artisticprocrastornator for reviewing as well. I love the love! The love helps me keep writing, even if I do wind up taking forever!**

**But I swear that this story WILL be finished. WHEN it will be finished is in doubt, but I can promise that it will.**

**The idea of having another force controlling Loki's mind comes from "Damaged Defenders" by Sherza. GO READ IT. NOW. It is epic and amazing and perfect and something I wish was canon. **

**So now they are in Avengers Tower and things should progress from there.**

**Um, I think that is all I want to say. What was it again?**

**Oh, yes.**

**Review, please! Let me know how I did with Loki. I love him, but he's hard to write. And if you're interested in Nightwalker's other exploits, check out some of my other stories! **


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